Customer Reviews

Wish You Were Here

5 star:		(276)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Stunningly beautiful, haunting, mesmerizing. Almost achingly touching.

Altough contains more than tribute songs to former band member, Pink Floyd's founder Syd Barret, when you stop listening to this album you are left with serenity surrounding you. You feel good.

Buy this, listen to this and have a silent moment. For both, appreciating this masterpiece and remembering Syd, who shall remain greatly missed.

Keep shining, you masterpiece of an diamond.

Nothing less than five stars, for both.

-Katrina

This was a great experience! Mastering was perfect. Vinyl is almost black very quiet. One of the best purchases of Vinyl I have made ever. I Am Looking foreward to getting my order of The Wall due in February.

As one of those reviewers that trashed the DSOTM re-release, I have to concur with everyone else that this release is light years better in terms of the quality of the pressing and sonics. Let's hope The Wall follows suit!

Dark Side of The Moon is their most well-rounded record, Animals is their most poetically hard-hitting record, and The Wall is their biggest commercial success (and probably my second favourite by a very small margin), but if my house ever caught fire and I could only save one PF album, I'd definitely take Wish You Were Here.
What makes it my favourite is that it balances Waters' emerging lyrical input perfectly with the fundamentals of the band; melody, progression, underlying ambience, and thoughtful songwriting. It doesn't lean too close to the radio set like DSOTM, and the group has yet to become dominated by Waters' dark (albeit incredible) lyrics like on Animals, The Wall, or The Final Cut. Wish You Were Here instead is a prog rock gem that to me defines how great Pink Floyd was. To top it all off, there's poetic justice in knowing that Wish You Were Here is of course a tribute to 'Floyd's long-lost founding member, Syd Barrett.

If you're only a few years into progressive rock like I am, a n00b if you will, (haven't been listening to it since the 70's) and for some bizarre reason you haven't heard Wish You Were Here, then check it out! And just because a band might be popular with the mainstream, it doesn't necessarily make it a bad band!

Man... this must be the best album ever put out by a band! It is absolutely stunning and I am amazed at how a band can even concieve such a great CD. The first time I listened to this I was blown away.

SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND PT. 1- A great beginning to the album. Most of it's musical, but, heh, it's 14 minutes long. The lyrics are great, good beat. 9/10

WELCOME TO THE MACHINE- Sort of depressing, but it has some good lyrics and instruments are good. Heh, if you've listened to the Wall, you know 'sort of depressing!' 7.5/10

HAVE A CIGAR- Cool. This has some pretty good lyrics and I know that Pink Floyd enjoyed doing this one. I really like it because of the instuments and the singing, Roger Waters can sing and he handled this one very, very well. 10/10

WISH YOU WERE HERE- Best song on the album, by far. I really, really enjoyed this song and it really deserves all the credit it can get. The best lyrics I've ever heard on a song, some good music, in fact, some very good music. I believe this song should get some awards, becuase, well, it is an amazing song! 11/10

SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND PT. 2- A good ending to a great album. What can I say??? 8/10

All in all, this's a CD that must belong to every collection in order for it be complete. This is a CD that changed music, Pink Floyd themselves changed music!

Great, great, great.

Pink Floyd is the second best band to ever be. No band could ever be as good. Wish You Were Here is only one of the albums. It is one of my favourite, but any Pink Floyd (not counting Division Bell, that IS NOT Pink Floyd) album is five stars only because there are no more stars to add. If you do not like Wish You Were Here, you don't know music. Pink Floyd will live longer than any man, or woman. The only band that could ever beat Pink Floyd? The Beatles!

Although it only contains 5 songs, it will take you on an amazing and haunting ride. Shine on you crazy Diamond is 2 part "gem" of this album. The song is a true sonic adventure that always seems to put me into a complete relaxed mood. Especially haunting is "Welcome to the machine" a brilliant song that really makes Roger's feelings about Syd Barret clear.
Wish you were here although more mainstream is still very cool. Have a cigar seems a little out of place but it's still a great song. I suggest this album to anyone interested in Pink Floyd, Don't let the fact that it only has 5 songs get you not to buy it. Because it packs a a nice punch.

This review has more to do with the review system on amazon, then it does the album itself (which I love).

In my humble opinion, Amazon needs to stop taking reviews from anonymous sources. It allows one person to screw up the ratings for a product, and get away with it. This album should not have a half star deducted because some one guy decided he didn't like it, and would post multiple reviews along the same rant.

I'm not suggesting that all bad reviews should be done away with, but I don't think people should be posting reviews with the cowardly anonymity they currently are.

James :/

An indescribable sort of passion fills the air, a minute suggestion that becomes a gentle roar. More than anything, Wish You Were Here is a progression, a slow and laboured rise from a dim electronic hum to an epic, symphonic blast of impassioned rock music. It, like most Floyd albums, is not a collection of songs but a single work, and to look at it as anything else would be to completely miss out on what Pink Floyd was trying to do in the first place.
Think of the saxophone at the end of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond pt. 1." It sounds beautiful, alive, tuneful, lilting, free, a bird perched on a mile-high gust of wind. And suddenly, behind it, there is the deep, ominous, downright horrific hum that signals the beginning of "Welcome to the Machine," and suddenly, the sax sounds weak and pitiful against it, and slowly fades away into the distance, and all you're left with is that hum, and "Welcome to the Machine" begins, in all its cynical, deep seated, and world-weary glory. "Welcome to the Machine" Is a song about growing up, how the world can destroy your youthful ideals, take your big dreams and shatter them. Or, it could be interpreted as a song about former bandleader Syd Barret's descent into madness. That's the great thing about Floyd's lyrics, deep seated double meanings, the fractured view it creates.
"Have A Cigar" is a grimly funny song about a smooth-talking record producer, with that immortal line: "And by the way, which one's Pink?"
The title track is a sweet ballad of regret, a story of one man's lonliness after the loss of a dear friend. It also happens to be my favorite track on the album, so rich and textured, with a beautiful acoustic guitar and Roger Waters' best lyrics ("We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year.")
These three tracks are bookended by the album's two epics, "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" parts 1 and 2. These are, by any strech of imagination, some of the best work that Pink Floyd has ever done. Part 1 starts of slow and tuneful, with someexcillent guitar work on David Gilmour's part. It's first eight minutes are a haunting instrumental, with echoey guitars, crashing symbols, and a slow, rythmic bass line. The after the instrumental portion, Waters begins to sing, a sad, mournful tribute to Syd Barett (The entire concept of Wish You Were Here is that it is a tribute to Barett).
Part 2 is faster, with a more rock edge, but closely resembles its prediscesor. It has a darker edge to it, but still retains a kind of beauty.
All in all, WYW is a beautiful, symphonic listening experience, on par with Dark Side of the Moon and Wall.

PLEASE IGNORE THE POINTLESS ONE STAR REVIEWS FOR THIS GREAT ALBUM WHICH WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST EVER BY FLOYD ALONG WITH THE WALL AND DARK SIDE OF THE MOON.VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.BUY IT!!!!!!!!!